SEO Tactics: You can make your own video

To secure a spot for your real estate agency on the first page of a Google search, could be as easy as making your very own video with your smartphone and posting it on YouTube.

To be listed among the first ten hits after a Google search is no easy feat in today’s competitive online environment, especially when you are a small agency competing with the big boys. This is where video postings can help you a lot say social media marketing experts.

The statistics are staggering. YouTube has over a billion users and in March 2017 an estimated 82% of Twitter users watched video on the social media platform. Last year it was estimated that more than 500 million people watched video on Facebook every day (via Forbes), no wonder the social media platform co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in December we are in the golden age of video.

Video is the short answer to improving your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO) which is the name given to activity to improve the rankings of your website. Not to get too technical, in short, video gets your site to rank higher and video keeps people around for longer on your website (which Google likes). As online content marketer Shawn Forno put it “video is the ultimate one-two punch for any SEO strategy” (for more on how video improves SEO read his article “Video SEO: 13 ways video boosts SEO” on https://idearocketanimation.com/14585-video-seo/).

Video offers a brilliant way to market your high-end properties to out-of-town buyers, but there are also other video topics you could consider. One suggestion is to do monthly video market updates where you just talk about what is happening in your property market or you could do neighbourhood videos. Chances are that you will be the first agent that thinks of marketing a specific neighbourhood which increases the chances of property sellers finding you when they do an online search on their neighbourhood, says US-based digital marketer Joshua Jarvis.

You record it through YouTube (or do a Facebook live broadcast) and then you share the embedded code of the YouTube video on social media and via email. Bonus points if you have a blog where you can share your video link.

But what if I can’t afford hiring a professional video marketing company, you say. Don’t worry, it is not that hard to make your own professional looking video’s. All you need is a smart phone or iphone that can preferably shoot high quality video (4k resolution is recommended) and a mount (don’t trust your hand to be steady enough). Jarvis says you don’t have to worry too much about making your videos pretty, it’s the content and the authenticity of your presentation (millennials don’t do ‘fake’) that matters.